Kemi Ilesanmi

“The twin pandemics of this year—COVID-19 and racial injustice—have encouraged us to lean into our mission in new ways,” says Kemi Ilesanmi, director of The Laundromat Project, an NYC-based nonprofit dedicated to offering creative community spaces, primarily in low-income neighborhoods and in communities of color, for people to make and experience art. 

In April, they launched the Creative Action Fund, a series of micro-grants given to artists in their alumni community who created art projects that offered solace, escape and engagement with issues relating to the tumult of COVID-19. “Then, as movements for racial justice began to sweep the globe, we anchored ourselves by remembering how Black and brown people have historically and powerfully practiced art, abundance and resilience, especially in trying times,” Ilesanmi says. “All summer, we have focused on supporting our artists, staff, neighbors, friends and partners by sharing resources and building knowledge through social media, online events, virtual studio visits and Zoom coffee dates.” 

At the end of September, The Laundromat Project announced that its first official organization home would be established in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, providing a concrete place to further the work that has seen more than $1 million donated to facilitating the art of over 165 multiracial, multigenerational and multidisciplinary artists and 80 innovative public art projects.